In medical image diagnosis, various kinds of image diagnosis apparatuses such as an X-ray CT (Computed Tomography) apparatus, an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus, an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) apparatus, an X-ray angiography apparatus, and a SPECT/PET apparatus are used depending on the purposes of diagnosis. Hereinafter, an image diagnosis apparatus may be referred to as a modality.
In general, data of multiple types of medical images acquired by multiple modalities are transmitted to, for example, an image observation apparatus in a PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System). In the image observation apparatus, an image viewer for displaying a medical image has already been introduced in advance. When the image observation apparatus receives data of a medical image, the image observation apparatus displays the received medical image on a screen of a monitor with an image viewer. At this occasion, in order for a user to be able to totally observe a morphological image and a functional image and compare and observe an examination image in the past and a current examination image, an image observation apparatus preferably displays multiple types of medical images on a screen at a time.
For this reason, in recent years, a multi-modality function has been introduced into an image observation apparatus in order to be able to display multiple types of medical images on a screen at a time. In this image observation apparatus, the image display area of the monitor is divided into multiple areas, and each of multiple types of medical images is displayed in each area. A user can select any medical image displayed in each area by referring to the image list. In this case, the image list means a list of all the medical images received by the image observation apparatus. The image list is displayed on the screen in a selection process of a medical image displayed in each area.
However, the image observation apparatus explained above has a drawback in that the user is unable to perform, in parallel, the image selection process for selecting image data displayed in each area from the image list, and the image verification process for precisely examining an image displayed in each area. More specifically, the image observation apparatus explained above has a drawback in that the image observation apparatus is unable to display an image list and a desired image in areas on the screen at a time, and needs to switch the screen on every such occasion, which is therefore cumbersome.